


A Nick of Bronze.

by BornofFlame



Series: Among Gods and Mortals. [5]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, I've been giving hints to stuff can you find it;), Italian!Virgil, M/M, Virgil tries his best, patton is a child of apollo or hecate, roman is our lovable himbo, we all experience a heart attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28681440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornofFlame/pseuds/BornofFlame
Summary: Nico and Patton tag team on getting Virgil and Roman home.  Unfortunately, nothing ever goes according to plan and Virgil just wants peace of mind.But he's stuck with main character syndrome:(
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Among Gods and Mortals. [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2099127
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	A Nick of Bronze.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FrenchBaguette13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrenchBaguette13/gifts).



> enjoy!  
> also, Tim and Wind are like the US's equivalent of a T-mobile or a Verizon. They're the more popular of the phone providers in Italy at least.  
> -ky/emile

Virgil woke up feeling frazzled, but at least his head was clear and he didn’t feel like the world was going to cave in on itself.

It was dark as he made his way out of the infirmary and to the front of the house, silently opening the door.

It’s brighter out here, the moon looking like liquid silver and Virgil sat on the stairs that led up to the porch. It might be this world’s atmosphere, or maybe it’s the magic of the camp, but he can see the stars for the first time in a long while. 

Virgil isn’t really sure how long he’s sitting there before the girl comes and sits next to him. She doesn’t say anything and he’s grateful for it- there’s nothing like trying to explain yourself for the seventh time in a day- but she does seem to be fiddling with a sketchbook and a pencil.

“You’re pretty far from Rome.” she finally speaks up, and Virgil looks over as she closes her sketchbook.

Virgil sighed. “I know.”

“I’ve personally never been. I’ve been to Italy, yeah, but my father took us to Milan instead. All the fashion and whatnot.”

“Milano is pretty cool. I’ve got a cousin there.”

The girl nodded. “I’m Rachel Elizabeth Dare. It’s nice to meet you, even if it is one am.”

Virgil turned and stuck out a hand. “Uh, Virgilius De Rossi. It’s just Virgil though. I didn’t know if you wanted the full name thing since… well, you did it.”

“Oh, I know already.” Rachel said as she shook his hand. “You’re on my wall.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“I’m the current Oracle of Delphi. I saw you a few months ago and painted you and your companion on my cave wall.” Rachel shrugged. “It’s kinda just a thing I do.”

“Oh. Are you like a demigod?”

“Nope! Just a mortal like Roman. Although I can see through the Mist.”

Virgil looked away so he could continue to stare at the night sky. “I’m a mortal too. Kinda just a boring one. At least Ro is probably enjoying himself here. I couldn’t even make it half a day.”

“That’s not your fault. One of my first experiences with this side of life was a demigod trying to run me through with a sword at Hoover Dam.”

Virgil laughed, then slapped a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, it was pretty funny.” Rachel grinned. “And then another time there were these psycho cheerleaders… Needless to say, it does tend to overwhelm even the strongest. Especially if you’re a halfblood that just found out.”

Virgil blinked. “When we were walking over here from the fields, I saw someone that looked like they were eight.”

“They probably were. The camp’s slowly getting younger kids and teens now that the gods are required to claim them before age thirteen.”

Virgil blinked. “I feel like I’m missing so much more information that is being offered.”

“I’m sure someone will catch you up on it if you want. I’m not always the most qualified.” Rachel pulled her hair out of the ponytail it was in, ran a hand through it and did it up again. “You should probably go inside. The harpies come this way every few hours and they do enjoy eating people.”

Virgil stood and held out a hand to help Rachel up. “It was nice to meet you Rachel Elizabeth.”

“To you as well Virgil De Rossi. Be vigilant.”

And with the cryptic warning, Rachel walked away, leaving Virgil to stare after her until he could hear the cry of something that didn’t quite sound human or bird.

…

Roman woke up the next morning to Virgil shaking him.

“They don’t have a  _ Wind _ on this reality.”

“What?”

“ _ Wind _ , you know, my cell phone service? They have a  _ Tim _ , but not a  _ Wind _ . I knew I should have changed plans before coming to visit you.” Virgil showed Roman his phone before flopping onto the bed that Roman was still in. Roman wrapped his arms around Virgil and pulled him so that they were half hugging. 

“Do you think they have Verizon? That’s my cell phone service.”

“I don’t know, I didn’t look. But Nico’s taking us down to the strawberry field in a few hours and we’re heading home. I can’t wait to leave.”

Roman nodded. “I played cards with a god yesterday.”

“That’s random. Also, how are you still alive?”

“Luck and Chiron said that it wasn’t allowed to kill the mortal. So yeah. But I’m ready to go home too.”

Virgil snuggled into Roman’s embrace, hiding his face in the crook of his boyfriend’s neck. “Our parents are going to be so mad.”

“Maybe. I have a feeling that they’ll be more worried than anything. After all, it’s not like either of us to just suddenly ghost our families.”

“I’m still nervous. The sooner we’re back, the sooner I’ll feel better about this whole thing.”

The door of the guest room swung open. Nico stuck his head in, noticed them and rolled his eyes.

“Come on, we’re going now. You guys can be mushy back on your home reality.”

Virgil and Roman sat up and Virgil casually flipped off Nico, who did the gesture back before disappearing out of the doorway.

“Oh no, there’s two of you.” Roman muttered as Virgil jumped up and dragged him out. “Let me put on shoes first!”

…

Nico was waiting at the field with Patton when Roman and Virgil finally both made it to them.

“Finally.”

“Hey! We almost got shot by some kid!” Virgil protested.

“You do realize that it wouldn’t have affected you?” Patton said with a grin of his face. Nico snickered.

“Okay, jokes and getting shot aside, we’re just going to go what worked last time. I try to locate your reality, with Pat’s help. Then we push Virgil through first and Roman you go after him.”

Nico concentrated on the ground in front of him, trying to remember everything that he could from the first time he landed in the wrong world. After a few moments, he felt Patton’s hand on his shoulder and their shadows began to ripple unnervingly.

“I got it. Virgil, go.” Nico said, gritting his teeth. Virgil took a few steps forward and looked back at them.

“Thank you Nico. Here’s to hoping.”

Then he disappeared into the shadows. Roman followed right after and Nico held it for as long as he could before the shadows collapsed to normal and Patton took his hand off his shoulder.

“It worked!” Patton exclaimed.

There was a scream from another part of the field and Nico turned just in time to see a void of shadow open above a satyr, neatly spitting out two teens. They landed on top of the satyr and the void disappeared with a pop.

“Merda.” Nico cursed.

...

Virgil landed on someone, and Roman landed on top of him.

“Virgil, you think we’re back?”

“No.” Virgil groaned. “Get off me, I’m crushing someone.”

Roman rolled off him and Virgil sat up. “Sorry pal.”

The satyr sat up and brushed at his shirt. “Nah, you’re good.” He paused, leaned forward and sniffed at Virgil. “You smell strange.”

“Uh..” Virgil shifted backwards a bit as the satyr smelled him again.

“Like… huh. You smell like pasta., but also something else I can’t place.”

“Oh my god.” Roman snickered. “You smell like an Italian.”

“I am Italian!” Virgil shot back.

By this time, Nico had made his way to them, Patton following. 

“So that didn’t work. At all.” He said dryly. Virgil nodded and Roman shrugged.

“Try again?”

…

Thirteen tries.

Thirteen fails.

By the end, Nico was exhausted, Patton was on the brink of passing out and Virgil also looked like he’d been completely drained. Only Roman seemed to be fine and so it was him who ended up having a halfway asleep Patton riding piggyback as they made their way back to the Big House.

“Since none of that clearly worked, even though we tried literally everything, we need to make a new game plan. Maybe bring in the cabin heads and have a meeting.” Nico said as they walked inside to see Chiron in a wheelchair.

“Back so soon?”

“Nothing worked.” Virgil spat.

Patton jumped down from the piggyback as Nico and Virgil began to talk with the centaur. “I’m going to Will, I think I overused my energy.”

Roman waved bye before turning back to the conversation.

“I don’t know what else to do. Is there even another portal like thing we can use?”

“Nico, what happened the first time you were thrown into another reality?”

“I already told you! I was fighting some D-list god and they tossed me into a portal. I tried to shadow travel and ended up on my ass in a fountain.”

“I saw and helped him back.” Virgil interrupted before Nico could get too upset. “And you heard about yesterday.”

“I am aware. We should probably have a war meeting. Gather the cabin heads.”

…

A ping pong table. Virgil wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to laugh at the absurdity of nearly twenty kids all gathered around a ping pong table, debating on what to do about him and Roman.

And that wasn’t even everyone. There were a few other cabin heads that had elected to not come, and honestly, Virgil didn’t blame them.

It’s really boring to argue on ways to get rid of mortals in camp. Virgil and Roman were both just sitting there awkwardly as Roman quiet asked him what each weapon was since he couldn’t see them, just normal objects. 

“What’s that broom?” Roman pointed to a spear that a scary looking girl had propped up on the table.

“It’s another spear Ro.” Virgil hissed back.

“HAVE--” Will interrupted the voices and the talking quieted down. “Have we considered that one of them shouldn’t be going back?”

“What the hell are you talking about Solace?” the girl with the spear shot back. “They’re clearly mortals.”

Will gestured to the pair. “We can always test it.”

The room was so silent, as if everyone was holding their breath.

Roman spoke up first. “Sounds fun! Who wants to test me first?”

Virgil elbowed him. “Roman.”

“What? It seems better than just sitting here and arguing.”

Nico stood from his spot. “Fine, we can test them. But I can assure you, Roman and Virgil are completely mortal. Celestial Bronze  _ will not _ harm them.”

“Can I do the honors?” A boy piped up as he unsheathed his knife.

“You’ll stab them, we don’t want that.” Will said. 

“But..”

“Just press a knife to the back of the hand. It reduces the risk of anyone being wrong on any party.”

Roman gladly held out his hand as the boy came over. He tried to press the edge of the knife against his skin, but it passed through.

“Mortal.”

“Oh good, I didn’t need an identity crisis from someone stabbing me.” Roman responded cheerfully.

Virgil was more careful about it and Roman could see that his hand was shaking as it was gripped and the knife was lowered to it.

The knife made contact, but instead of going through like it had with Roman, the bronze broke through the pale skin and a few beads of blood welled up. Virgil flinched and pulled his hand back.

“No..”

“Demigod.”

Virgil stood, his chair getting pushed back and he raised his hands. “Please, I’m normal, I swear.”

Chiron’s voice was solemn as he spoke up from the back of the room. “Clearly not.”

Virgil made eye contact with Roman and he shrugged. “Lucky?” He guessed. Virgil shook his head, and he turned and booked it out of the room before anyone could stop him.

Chiron’s sigh was audible.

“Well, this complicates things.”

…

Virgil wasn’t really quite sure where he was, but he was lost. His hand hurt a bit and he began to inspect it as he walked. The damage wasn’t that bad, but it was more of the implications of the injury than anything.

Half god.

It didn’t make sense.

Virgil looked up to see that he had somehow wandered to the base of a hill. There was a cave with a curtain covering the entrance and he paused as it rustled.

Rachel came out, dressed in paint splattered jeans and an old t-shirt.

“Virgil! How’s it going?”

“Uh, am I allowed to swear around you?” Virgil asked.

“Sure, it helps the creative process.” Rachel said as she wiped her forehead, smearing paint across it.

“Well, I’m absolutely fucked. How are you?”

“That doesn’t sound good. I’m doing pretty good myself. Why don’t you come in?”

Virgil shrugged and followed Rachel as she opened the curtain and led him inside.

“You can stay here long as you need. And we should probably treat that hand. How’d you cut it?”

Virgil shrugged. “Long story.”

Rachel grinned as she turned on a few lamps, illuminating the walls of the cave that were decorated with hundreds of paintings of monsters and demigods. “I’ve got time.”

**Author's Note:**

> (kudos and comments?  
> Also, let me know if you want a work here gifted to you.)


End file.
